Veteran Status?

[Powder Monkey]

Your model looks great!! How long you been working on it?

Thanks…..
On and off a few months……obsessing over it. Its the “learning how do i do things” process…..and allot of looking for stuff dropped on the floor too.
I get side tracked in a good way with small stuff ….
One thing i am looking for and will be looking at modeling it and hopefully my next #2 is the vessels couldn't possibly be pristine ……the salt wind and seas must have taken a toll ……..
…….a time far from modern paints and materials.

 

[USNChief]

6 years in the US Marines, helicopter pilot. All those years in the continental US.

Semper Fi!

 

[USNChief]

How are things in Rota these days?

"Better than I deserve!" Life is good. I got the biggest house I ever lived in, one block/short walk from the beach. It is a five-minute walk to the nearest Venta (seafood restaurant/bar) and a 17-minute bicycle ride to the office and gym on base. It has changed greatly since I was here in 1995-99 while on AD. I am looking into retiring here in August 2027 when I finally retire-retire.

 

[SAHaskell]

Enlisted in USN Reserve in January of junior year of high school, attending training meetings at the reserve training center in Augusta, Maine. A few weeks after High School graduation I was assigned to the USS Arcadia, in Providence Rhode Island. After about 6 months on board, went to Electronics School and then straight to Lowry AFB in Denver, Colarado for 5-months Precision Measuring Equipment School; then back to the arcadia in Newport, RI. I was supposed to be there for about 3 years in the calibration Lab, but after 6 months on board the Navy decided to decommission the Arcadia, so I was sent back to Great Lakes, IL as an instructor in the Basic Electronics School. Quite a surprizing chain of events that was highly educational for me. Total active duty was about 6 years and 3 months.

 

[Jimsky]

Thank you all for your service!!

 

[Pat H]

Why My Stripes Are Green
The only time I've won a lottry was for the draft during the war in Viet Nam.
But I outsmarted the draft board by running off to join the U.S. Navy. Ended up doing Market Time patrols off south Viet Nam.

 

[Wedgie01]

Why My Stripes Are Green
The only time I've won a lottry was for the draft during the war in Viet Nam.
But I outsmarted the draft board by running off to join the U.S. Navy. Ended up doing Market Time patrols off south Viet Nam.

View attachment 563833

Hey Pat. That's a very familiar photo; Sensor 3 on the venerable P-3C Orion. Spent many, many hours there myself in our Aussie variant.
Great aircraft to fly in.

 

[Pat H]

Australia and so many other countries used and maintained their P-3s so much longer and better than the U.S. did.
I began finding SS-3 control boxes on eBay as U.S. P-3s were turned over to fire fight companies and stripped out to make fire bombers out them.
I even found two actual SS-3 ICS control boxes with "ECM" and "MAD" labeled selections. (One of them is new old stock, never used.)
I've managed to put together a semi-functioning ADF system. ( Need 400 hz power for tuning.)
Sometimes it's fun to flip the switches, bringing old memories back to life.
Still would like to find and RO-32 MAD recorder and a crew seat with the floor rails.

 

[JD95648]

US Navy 1996-2002. Stationed on the USS Rainier out of Bremerton, WA.

 

[KenDalecki]

Thanks for a great thread! I predated the lottery so we were all drafted if fit to serve. I joined the USNR in 1965 after college graduation and spent two years on active duty as an enlisted photojournalist stationed at Cubi Point Naval Air Station in Subic Bay, the Philippines, from 1967-68. I made the most of it and had some great experiences, including a brief interview with Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (I was an E-3) when he stopped at Cubi on is way to taking command of the 7th Fleet. Several years later I interviewed him in his office at the Pentagon as a civilian Washington correspondent for a newspaper chain when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ("You've come a long way since the last time I saw you," I told him. "Not as far as you," he said with a smile.)

Lots of guys tried to dodge the draft in my time. The thought never crossed my mind. My brother won the Bronze Star at 19 years old leading Patton's troops across the Saar River in WWII and my father was highly decorated and badly wounded serving his country in WWI. A cousin nearly died in the Battle of the Bulge. Vietnam was a tragedy but not serving was not an option to me. I visited Vietnam about 10 years ago and loved the people, especially the kids. The government may be a thugocracy but the people were full of energy with no animosity toward Americans.

A neighbor and I were always making models as kids. He (Ed Mautner) went on to be an award-winning scratch race car modeler and worked at the Air & Space Museum restoring aircraft...his dream job. Ed, who was a race car driver before working at Air & Space, passed away two years ago...a great loss to the modelling community.

 

[Wedgie01]

Australia and so many other countries used and maintained their P-3s so much longer and better than the U.S. did.
I began finding SS-3 control boxes on eBay as U.S. P-3s were turned over to fire fight companies and stripped out to make fire bombers out them.
I even found two actual SS-3 ICS control boxes with "ECM" and "MAD" labeled selections. (One of them is new old stock, never used.)
I've managed to put together a semi-functioning ADF system. ( Need 400 hz power for tuning.)
Sometimes it's fun to flip the switches, bringing old memories back to life.
Still would like to find and RO-32 MAD recorder and a crew seat with the floor rails.

View attachment 563980

Ah, memories. Yes, AUS only retired the last of our Orion's a couple of years ago. Still miss them. I never would have thought to look on Ebay for 'spare' P-3 parts. That's quite amazing. Thanks for sharing the pics.